The xx - xx

As Paul The Octopus isn’t returning our calls we’ll have to make do with our own physic cephalopod, Mitchell Stirling as he casts his tentacles over the elite 12 British and N. Irish records that might be receiving nods next week.

Last year I, like most people felt that Doves winning would be to similar to the Elbow win the previous year but didn’t think that would prevent them getting a nod (nor did the bookies, they were favourites). Similarly we all thought that Portishead’s Third was a lock the year before and it didn’t make it. This year we can’t even find odds before the nominations but you can pick up a vibe on a few releases.

The XX – XX: We’d would be frankly astounded if this doesn’t get nominated, it was already being talked about as a potential winner around the time of last year’s ceremony. WE fully expect it to go in as favourite once the nominations are announced as well based on the acclaim it received at the end of the year that wasn’t restricted to the UK indie press, it was lauded by the broadsheets, the older music press and even the likes of FACT, The Wire and Mixmag. We haven’t seen a reaction to a British record like that since Dummy a former Mercury Prize winner. The one to beat we feel.

Wild Beasts – Two Dancers: Discussed in similar terms last autumn as a potential winner when summer rolled round. It has also been applauded thoroughly for the delight it takes in it’s own outsider status from the striking imagery to the arresting melodies. We don’t think it has enough momentum behind it with its September release in the way The XX have though.

Laura Marling – I Speak Because I Can: We’ve rhapsodised a fair bit about Miss Marling on this site and to anyone that will listen. It seems critical and public consensus is catching up with me and she’ll likely add the nomination of her first album in 2008 with this one. We also fully expect it to be among the favourites when the odds are drawn up.

Marina and the Diamonds – The Family Jewels and Ellie Goulding – Lights: We’re almost flipping a coin on this one. The top two of the BBC’s Sound of…  poll at the start of the year and in the previous two years the women at the top of that list have had a 50% strike rate with Duffy and Little Boots not making the cut, La Roux and Adele did. We think a similar thing is going to happen this time and although neither album really set my pulses racing we’ll go with Marina for having slightly more of the star quality. Bank on at least one of them to make it though.

Delphic – Acolyte: With the slightly more leftfield guitar-indie of The XX and Wild Beasts it’s hard to think of a typical Conor NME indie type album that might make it so we’ll plump for Delphic on account of the high amounts of tips at the start of the year and the goodwill they still have from their incredible early singles.

Plan B – The Defamation of Strickland Banks: It was a surprise at the time that his ‘British Eminem’ debut didn’t attract the attentions of the judges who went with Sway’s This Is My Demo and likely couldn’t find room for both on the list. The change to an easier on the Radio 2 listener’s ears singing style and lack of calling everyone listening a c**t probably puts him in a good position to land on the list.

Others that could make it.

Like last year we’ll throw in albums we’d like to see on the list first. These New Puritans‘  Hidden would be high up on my nomination sheet, a step up from their debut as impressive as that of The Horrors last year. We are also a big fan of Race Horses‘ Goodbye Falkenburg but fear that if SFA can’t get on the last two lists it’s unlikely another Welsh band that has followed them can. (we’re sure Jude Rogers will try though!) If we’re following the saga of the release of Fanfarlo’s Reservoir correctly, it should be eligible this year if entered but who knows on that one.

We’d love to see Field Music’s third album on there but with the panel choosing not to include the excellent Tones of Town or The Week That Was, we’re not convinced that they’ll be sitting through a double album too often from their listening pile. Their loss, we know. We also would have loved to have seen Twilight Sad, Frightened Rabbit and Mystery Jets make the line-up in 2008 though we think they all suffered in what was a very strong year for the prize. Their most recent albums are all in with a shout of making it but we feel that they aren’t as strong as previous efforts. The Big Pink’s debut seems a very long time ago now but Glasvegas managed to make the list after a long gap last time out. We’re 50:50 on A Brief History of Love doing likewise. We also can’t see Alex Turner making it four from four with Arctic Monkeys‘ Humbug certainly not a bad album by any standard but it’s autumn release handicaps it more than any perceived dip in quality we feel. A couple of albums that could make it on both strength and previous efforts feeling hard-done-by are Foals‘ Total Life Forever and Los Campesinos! with Romance is Boring.

With a presumed nod for Laura Marling we think, despite the wealth of talent in the indie folk box there’s probably only room for one more nomination; it would likely be Mumford and Sons. A band that have had stratospheric rise in the past 12 months with a feverent fan-base that clearly adores them and their intense live show as well as lashings of Radio 1 play their have the wind in their sails despite a large amount of sniping at them. This probably means no place for Noah & the Whale’s The First Days of Spring or Peggy Sue’s Fossils and Other Phantoms as there surely wouldn’t be a third album from that corner of the world. Previous nominees The Unthanks and newcomers Stornoway and Goldheart Assembly are more on the Radio 2/Uncut end of the folk spectrum so they could usurp Mumford and Sons or join them in a heavily folky list.

Moving away from guitars there’s every chance that Hot Chip’s recent effort One Life Stand, a more complete effort than Made In The Dark could be nominated like 2006’s The Warning was. We also think that if Four Tet are ever going to get a nomination than this is year with There Is Love in You, one of the best received albums of the year. In a similar vein Fuck Buttons, Scuba, James Yuill and Broadcast and The Focus Group may feel in with a shout.

Typically there’s a Irish nomination just to remind everyone that Irish acts are eligible prime suspect this year is likely to be the joyful but lightweight indie pop of Two Door Cinema Club or Dublin’s Villagers. Former nominees Polar Bear, Dizzee Rascal, Portico Quartet, Maps, Fyfe Dangerfield, Jamie T and Richard Hawley all have perfectly serviceable albums that could make it. Muse’s last album was terrible but that doesn’t stop the panel from including one record a year to really annoy us. A much better home-grown stadium rock effort would be Biffy Clyro who surely deserve a look-in for persistence alone.

There are a few acts that’ve never been on the list that might make a debut Steve Mason’s Beta Band never made the cut. Nor, surprisingly did Grammy and BRIT nominee Corinne Bailey Rae with her debut. We think she may well atone for that oversight. Paul Weller has his best album since 1993 nomination for Wild Wood but we don’t think he’s the kind of act they’d want to nominate still. What price a nomination for Teenage Fanclub or The Fall after all these years? (We can’t see them wanting Mark E. Smith gurning at Lauren Laverne in September to be honest.)

We have also mulled records by The Cribs, North Atlantic Oscillation, Archie Bronson Outfit, Rox, Bombay Bicycle Club, New Young Pony Club, Massive Attack, Lonelady, Pulled Apart By Horses, Tunng, Kate Nash, The Chemical Brothers and Blood Red Shoes and could only see NYPC or Lonelady sneaking on to the list but we’re not going to tip them.

We wanted to mention Slow Club as a nominee we’d like to see but Charles and Rebecca’s wonderful debut falls outside of the dates for being on this year’s list after looking it up. Anyone who is suggesting Gorrilaz will be nominated may want to do their homework on the band’s previous nomination though!

Our final predictions: The XX, Wild Beasts, Laura Marling, Marina and The Diamonds, Plan B, Delphic, Four Tet, Foals, Biffy Clyro, Mumford and Sons, Empirical and Villagers.

Half a dozen more to cover our tracks: Scuba, Ellie Goulding, The Fall, Corrine Bailey Rae, Hot Chip and These New Puritans.

How accurate will we be?

Having been to festivals for the last seven years I thought I had seen it all, heard it all, done it all, but maybe more importantly knew exactly what to expect, but no festival experience could prepare me for the five nights spent in a field in a farm in Pilton. Now that I have sampled a five-star festival I am not sure that any other festival can compare.

Before Glastonbury my favourite festival had always been Reading, for a few reasons this has always been great, but for quite a few more reasons it has had its draw backs.

Let’s concentrate for the purposes of this article on the awesomeness that is Glastonbury Festival.

Firstly, has to be the line-up, it’s a festival that every artist has heard of, a friend of mine who is in a band said to me “I will know I have made it, when I get to headline the Pyramid stage”. For the 40th anniversary we were all promised a killer line-up, and Gorillaz replacing U2 was met with very mixed opinions. I was on the fence on that one, and went to see the Gorillaz on the pretence that they had planned something extra special. In my opinion, it wasn’t all that. The rest, though, was epic.

The festival kicked off with Rolf Harris, a legend. Whether, like me, you know him from childhood as the guy that taught you to draw cartoon versions of himself on the body of a kangaroo during Cartoon Club, or because your grandparents played his vinyl’s on their ancient record players, or because you are of a younger generation and know him from his Jekyll and Hyde performances on Animal Hospital. Either way, it was a great start to a festival, and in his words: “a highlight of my entertaining career”

Then you had performances from Snoop Dog at his very first Glastonbury. Making the crowd “jump around” in 30c heat is no mean feat. Secret performances from Radiohead, the regular festival circuit band Vampire Weekend, and Julian Casablancas performing Strokes material without the rest of the Strokes.

Mumford & Sons and Bombay Bicycle Club, who between them seemed to pull in the biggest John Peel tent audiences of the weekend.

Then Stevie Wonder, singing Happy Birthday with Michael Eavis on stage, to bring it all to an end. Love it or loathe it, it was a fitting and emotional end to a festival. Even if it did look like embarrassing car crash TV when I watched it back last night, you will have to take my word that it was probably a ‘had to be there’ kind of moment.

There were literally hundreds of acts across well over 40 stages. It would be natural to think Glastonbury and music go hand in hand, and stop there, however Glasto is so much more than music.

It is huge, at least ten times bigger than any other festival I have ever been to. And you could be forgiven to thinking that due to its size that it is just field after field divided by hedges and farm gates, but it isn’t. There is something to do, see or hear in almost every square inch of the vast place. Besides the stages and hundreds of food and clothes vendors, you have purpose-built nightclubs made of actual bricks and mortar with NY taxis and underground train carriages sticking out. Quiet places to think and reflect on the days events, hidden relaxation havens, and if you’re into communication during the festival even somewhere to hide from the sun and charge your phone.

There are the craft fields where you can be taught to glaze pots, make plates and spoons or carve from stone, with each themed area transporting you to what could be described as alternate universes decorated with movie set precision. Some of these places are better ventured after dark where a whole different Glastonbury comes to life.

The festival commonly resembles a Turkish mud bath, not this year though. Over the course of the weekend, Glastonbury experienced some of the highest temperatures it has ever had and without a cloud in the sky, the heat and sun were sometimes relentless. Maybe this is a sign of global warming, frankly, I don’t give a shit as I got to leave my wellies in the car, rather than carry them along with all my other crap on what seemed like a two-mile hike from the car park.

The community aspect is something completely different too, everyone is friendly, willing to help, and doesn’t care about another person’s opinion. One such environment was the Twisto group on twitter. I started following these people about two months prior to Glastonbury. Everyone has the same goals, to go and enjoy Glasto, regardless of which acts you plan to see. The buzz of excitement coming off these people leading up to the last few days before glasto was contagious.

Then there’s the camping environment. I think a festival is a lot about the people you go with, and I went with a great bunch of people, naturally friends bring friends whom you don’t know, and in turn, they become your friends. I honestly believe that 50% of my current social circle were originally friends of friends at festivals over the years.

I guess your Glasto camping experience is all down to where you decide to camp. We were in one of the new un-named fields. We arrived and unpacked the car at the hottest point of the day, so almost immediately after wristband exchange, Jms, (our “group co-ordinator)” dropped his bags, and said, “Fuck it, this will do.” Camp Fuck It was born. I must write to Emily Eavis and enquire whether this would be a field name they could pursue in future years…

Owing to one of our people, Kate, being pregnant, it was pre-decided that we would camp somewhere peaceful-ish, within easy access to toilets and medical facilities. The camp we chose fitted the bill perfectly.

At other festivals you see people frequently jumping the fence without having paid for a ticket. At modern Glasto, not one!

At other festivals you see drunk/drugged people kicking off, and frequently see the tell tale signs of someone being evicted due to their behaviour (the swarm of security guards, the revellers bundled into the back of land rovers). At Glasto, just one! And it was a relatively harmless argument to start off with, it was 9am, and he disliked another fella for stealing the numbers to his girlfriend’s postcode. Strange reason to lose your £185 ticket.

My final point about Glastonbury is the traffic to get onto site, and I think it’s my only real negative on the whole glasto experience. How can a festival that has been running for 40 years still suffer traffic chaos? 7am ‘til 2pm to travel the 20-odd miles from the M5 to the site.

Living in close proximity to Silverstone, I am aware of the changes forced upon traffic systems by huge volumes of people for one weekend per calendar year. I am incredibly surprised that more hasn’t been done about it.

Will I do Glasto again? Without a shadow of doubt!

The question at the beginning of this article was, is there life after Glasto?

The answer is still to be determined, but I go back to Reading with incredibly high expectations, knowing full well that, sadly, it probably won’t match up.

Dour festival

ALERT! ALERT! GIVEAWAY PRIZE ALERT! FREEBIES BELOW!

We are giving away five pairs of tickets to Dour, including camping! All you need to do is send your name, your guest’s name, and both of your email addresses to musosguide (at) gmail (dot) com. Easy as. You don’t even have to answer a question! These are the T&Cs from the lovely festival-running people there…

You have until Monday July 4 to enter…

And now you can read the preview…

If the increasingly gentrified and innocuous UK festival scene bores you, and you hanker for something a little more adventurous, you can’t go far wrong with Dour Festival – taking place between July 15 and 18 this year (2010, future readers).

Now maturing into its early 20s, the Dour festival was formally Europe’s best-kept secret, nestled as it within the municipality of Dour, Belgium. However, with this year’s roster of bands such as Faith No More, The Maccabees, Chris Cunningham, Atari Teenage Riot, Los Campesinos!, Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Owen Pallett, Chrome Hoof, New Young Pony Club, De La Soul, Fucked Up, Monotonix and GWAR to name but a meager selection, you’ll be hard pressed to find a festival with a staggeringly vast and varied array of music for the price (Just under £100 including camping or £198 for ticket, camping and ride).

With over 200 bands on six stages over four days, and continuing way into the early hours, toward its climax Dour begins to seem like more of an endurance test, albeit one set in an environment that’s as accommodating as it is relentless. Not so much about going to see the bands you know, but rather stumbling around to happen across some amazing European acts, Dour accommodates for the most esoteric and intrepid music fan.

We’ll see you there.

Anna Calvi

“If you are going to fail, try hard,” we were always told and this short preview of The Great Escape in Brighton lives by that maxim.

Muso’s Guide has listened to demos, live tracks, radio edits, YouTube videos and MySpace streams of over 200 of the acts performing across 30-odd venues in Brighton from Thursday through to the early hours of Sunday, but it’s not enough; there are still nearly 90 that we are fairly clueless about.

But on we soldier: here are a few less well known acts we recommend seeking out by the south coast -

Anna Calvi (Saturday 21.45 @ Revenge)

Calvi is one we’ve been keeping an eye on for a while, especially now Domino have signed them up and had them supporting Arctic Monkeys. The music has been drawing inevitable but fairly accurate PJ Harvey comparisons, more specifically for tracks like ‘Blackout’ which Dev Haynes was championing at – deep breath – light speed in the NME this winter [Ed - CRINGE].

Best Coast (Thursday 21.45 @ Life)

The weather might not reaching summer heights quite yet but it’s already time for the second wave of glo-fi. ‘Something In The Way’ is one of those songs that makes you wonder if another video has started on their MySpace player at the same time, such is its scuzzy charm. Hopefully the sun will come out (not likely at ten at night admittedly) for ‘Sun Was High (So Was I)’.

Dead Wolf Club (Thursday 19.15 @ Volks)

Dead Wolf Club remind us of These New Puritans, which is of course not a bad thing considering their stonking staccato guitar and terse delivery. They do have their heavier moments, like ‘Radar’, as well as the more chiming Byrdsian swirl of songs like ‘Wave’.

Esben and The Witch (‘Sunday’ 00.45 @ Duke of York)

On early-morning Sunday (so really, Saturday night), go and see this local buzz band> It’s a fair trek inland to the venue, and by this stage your feet may be calling for bed, but stick with it as Esben contain shades of Portishead, Björk, Bat For Lashes, Siouxsie and The Banshees, Aphex Twin and swathes of Poe and Brothers Grimm in the lyrics. You might even get to hear their curious take of Kylie’s ‘Confide In Me’ as well as recent single ‘Lucia, at the Precipice’.

Gaggle (Thursday 20.30 @ Concorde 2)

Concorde is a bit of a stroll down along the beach but if you do make it there you are sure to be rewarded by the sound of 22 women dementedly shrieking “I’m a drunk” like banshees on recent Transgressive single ‘I Hear Flies’. Imagine if someone swapped The Polyphonic Spree’s happy pills with booze. They literally scare me, as a man.

Islet (Friday 14.30 @ Freebut)

Despite their reluctance to leave a digital footprint we have already witnessed the barely controlled tornado of Islet’s live show supporting Los Campesinos! this winter. With more instruments lying about the stage than at a surgeon’s theatre, and members swapping places and sharing vocal and drum duties, they come Very Recommended from us.

Let’s Buy Happiness (Thursday 19.45 @ Basement)

We were flagging by the time we got to L in the A-Z Of Bands To Check Out to be honest, but this one really perked us up. When wesaw the familiar influences on the MySpace page (The Shins, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and other NAIR stables), weweren’t expecting much. But then we heard Sarah Hall’s amazing vocal on ‘Works Better on Paper’, sounding a little like Liz Fraser, and the requisite Cocteau Twins backing  for it. Magical.

Rich Aucoin (Saturday 22.15 @Above Audio)

Beach Boy comparisons are probably fair game when you have a song called ‘Brian Wilson is A.L.i.V.E.’, and they are spot on as well. This Canadian wizard gave me a grin that hasn’t spread across my mouth since hearing Daft Punk’s ‘Discovery’ and Avalanches’ ‘Since I Left You’. That was in Spring 2001!?!

OTHERS

Although they clash with some of the above and may be a little more packed, you can’t go far wrong with Spectrals, These New Puritans, Wild Beasts, Summer Camp, Egyptian Hip Hop, Bo Ningen, Crocodiles, Chapel Club, Stricken City, Avi Buffalo, The Morning Benders, Alessi’s Ark, Class Actress, Here We Go Magic, The Phenomenal Hand Clap Band, Slow Club, Crystal Fighters and Ray Dar Vees.

See you there!

THRICE AS NICE

So the grand old news for May is that we’re doing Thrice As Nice, a garage clubnight, with UKG sensations Oxide & Neutrino!!! On May 1 at The Alibi in Dalston (91 Kingsland High Street, E8 2PB), and what’s more? It’s free entry. From 8pm – 3am. It is going to be packed, and our biggest party to date.

Words can only go some way to expressing the levels of hype preceding this announcement, and for the flyer (left).

Here’s the beaut, himself:

Introducing… THRICE AS NICE
Saturday May 1
The Alibi, Kingsland High Street, Dalston, E8 2PB
FREE ENTRY: 8pm – 3am

Bringing back UK garage, with… OXIDE & NEUTRINO, ANT OR DEC, ROUGH TRADE DJs plus more DJs on the night!

/// The Line Up ///

*** The one, the only, the #1 UK garage superstars, it’s… OXIDE & NEUTRINO!

Not that they need an introduction but…

A number one single, five more top twenty singles and four albums later, Oxide and Neutrino are back: THRICE AS NICE brings you a rare appearance from London DJ and MC duo Oxide & Neutrino.

UKG sensations and So Solid Crew members Oxide & Neutrino took the charts by storm with their smash hit ‘Bound 4 Da Reload (Casualty)’ in May 2000, and sold over 300,000 copies of their debut album Execute.

***Thrice As Nice’s resident DJs ANT OR DEC

Ant or Dec are Thrice As Nice’s resident DJs. They literally cut the mustard.

***A floor-raising Chicago house set from our guest DJs from ROUGH TRADE

***And special guest DJs on the night

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS?

Beyond The Curve

Beyond The Curve is coming up at London’s The Camden Head on April 4th, with a dashing bill of poetry, short film, theatre, live music, cabaret, spoken word and much more. You can monopolise on cheaper tickets by purchasing in advance, where we’re offering a special discount. Just visit Wegottickets’ Beyond The Curve page to purchase.

As a reminder, the bill has been put together by us and our good friends at Broken Glass and will preview the summer’s fringe festivals with a hand-picked programme starting at 3pm and taking its audience through until the early hours.

And what’s more: the day after is Bank Holiday Monday!

Tickets, once again are available from http://www.wegottickets.com/event/74842

Red Bull Music Academy

Red Bull Music Academy’s month of programming across the capital gave our collective gig calendar the hike it was shouting out for, putting a colossal range of music (truly) on in London’s finest venues. It was also a pleasure to be greeted outside Tube stations with The Daily Note, full of fascinating features and interviews with the likes of Hot Chip.

We were there for Romy xx, 2manydjs and Friendly Fires’ DJ sets at the Hearn St car park (yes, a car park!) on March 12, and for the Culture Clash event at the Roundhouse a little while before that. Both were truly magnificent nights, taking some astonishing soundsystems, a bunch of excitable attendees and yes, a whole load of caffeine in the form of Red Bull.

Here’s what the car park looked like on Friday March 12:

Red Bull Music Academy

Red Bull Music Academy

It’s been an eye-opener of a fortnight, and if you (stupidly) missed out you can slap yourself round the face by watching this video with the highlights and some words from a few participants.

Muso's Guide presents... Canadian Blast

Spiral Beach are sonic rebels unafraid of breaking all the rules and having a party in the process! The band’s love of exploring different sounds and song structures is offset by their sophisticated sense of melody and elaborate vocal harmonies. And what’s more, we’re putting them in two weeks today! Spiral Beach are headlining our London Queen of Hoxton show on Tuesday November 24, playing alongside Hey Rosetta!, The Argument And How It Started and Redbluegreen.

The band has spent the last three years touring across the the United States and Canada with bands like the Hidden Cameras, The Go! Team and Tokyo Police Club, as well as performing in the UK in 2008 to celebrate the release of the ‘Voodoo’ single. They have also gained a devoted following in their hometown of Toronto thanks to their innovative live performances, putting on DIY all-ages shows in unusual venues such as art galleries, theatres, loft spaces and outdoor parks, which often feature audience participation and interactive visual projections.

The band has released two albums on Sparks Music in North America, 2007’s  Ball (recorded by ex-Hidden Cameras and Arcade Fire member Michael Olsen) and their most recent album The Only Really Thing.

Are you looking forward to returning to the UK?

Yes of course!! It’s been over a year since we were in London, we can’t wait to be back!

Your wildly audacious songs seem to have got even bolder and grander three albums down the line. How do you contain yourselves in the studio?

For The Only Really Thing we put a lot more time into working in the studio – our last album Ball was recorded live off the floor in a barn over just a couple of weekends. This time around we spent pretty much the whole winter holed up in Mike Olsen’s basement experimenting with different sounds, sampling, overdubbing etc… we ended up building a lot of the sound effects from scratch and them sampling our own record when it came to playing it live! It’s very important to us that the band be able to reproduce all the sounds you hear on the album.

The influences in your music seem wide-ranging. You described Ball as “Frankenstein on ecstasy”, and The Only Really Thing as Frankenstein on ecstasy in a Bollywood movie from 1968″. How would you describe the live show and what can we expect?

We’ve always really loved the sound of those Bollywood compilations from the 60s and 70s… there’s something about the multi-textured collage kind of feel that kind of connected with what we were doing anyway, so we made a conscious decision to use those records as a direct reference for recording the album – we thought it would be interesting since most of those artists were emulating western psychedelic bands originally, and here were are these kids from Toronto kind of reversing it, like a ping-pong effect.

What music are you guys all into?

We listen to pretty much everything that’s out there, my iTunes is on shuffle all the time… right now there’s some really great bands coming out of Toronto who we’ve gotten to play with, like DD/MM/YYYY and Slim Twig, definitely gotta check them out…

From the clips we’ve seen of your frantic, exciting performances, it’s going to be some spectacular. But do you write for performance?

We’ve always thought of us as being a visual band, so we try to make each show as exciting as possible for the audience… because of the logistics involved we can’t bring our projectionist over to the UK, but you can check out some of his work here.

Canada’s definitely produced some gems over the past few years. Were you Hidden Cameras fans before Mike Olsen became your producer?

We’ve actually gone on tour with the Hidden Cameras three times now across Canada and the US… they’re definitely one of our favourite bands, me and my brother Airick ended up playing with them almost every show! I think it’s both amazing and hilarious that people are starting to recognize Canada as a country where everyone plays in an awesome indie band… living in downtown Toronto it actually kind of feels like that sometimes…

What are your greatest influences? Where did the fascination with Bollywood come from? And what happens next?

We’ve played in this band almost seven years now with the same four members, so we’ve discovered all kinds of music together… we’re working on a couple of different projects right now that we’re really excited about; I’m writing insane techno-punk songs with Karoline Lebrun in montreal (she’s the one who originally introduced us to all this Bollywood craziness) and Airick is actually bringing over some cassettes to the London show of his solo stuff that he’s just finished – ask him about them! It’s incredible stuff, sounds like Throbbing Gristle covering Syd Barrett or something.

Get your tickets now for Muso’s Guide presents… Canadian Blast at the Queen of Hoxton on Tuesday 24 by clicking anywhere in this sentence.

Flood Tide

This is awesome! The River Thames dictates musical notes to a band in the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. The vibraphone trills and tinkles, the flute sighs, the clarinet swooshes and the ‘cellos throb like an undercurrent. It is ambient music to sweep you away…

Jazz trumpeter and ‘Flood Tide’ composer John Eacott calls it a ‘sonification’ of the Thames. He explains that the tidal pull of the moon causes the tide to ebb and flow. So his sensors, placed in the river near Greenwich pier, detect the rising height of the water. And they track changes in its speed, temperature and direction of travel. All this data is beamed up to the laptops that sit on the music-stands instead of printed music. Each time a signal is received it corresponds to a set of notes on one of the instruments, so as the cursor washes over the dots on the stave it keeps the rhythm of the water flowing over that particular sensor and that is what we hear coming out of the instruments. Nature and music, science and art come together and the Royal Observatory is hosting the experimental concerts as part of the anniversary celebrations for forty years since man walked on the moon.

To be honest, it doesn’t always sound like water. It’s more like the sensation of being rocked in a boat – sometimes a cradle, sometimes a rollercoaster log-flume. The sound is ever-changing, and also soothingly similar from one hour to the next. John Eacott suggests that people listen for a while then go away and come back to hear how the turning tide has made subtle changes in the sound.

The tide of tourists ebbs and flows, some stopping to listen, others baffled and hurrying back to more familiar sights and sounds. They are missing a unique experience which affects me deeply. I can’t wait for the next performance, on September 12th as part of the Thames Festival. That will be even more impressive, with forty musicians rather than six and a sense of the river’s mighty power.

It’s at the Cottons Centre near HMS Belfast on the south bank of the Thames near London Bridge from 1400 with more details here.

Blank canvases, a.k.a. CDs for mixology.

As Rob Flemming’s character says in High Fidelity (or Rob Gordon if you’ve never read the book):

“To me, making a mix tape is like writing a letter — there’s a lot of erasing and rethinking and starting again. A good compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do.”

So without further ado, welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the inaugural Muso’s Guide Mix CD event!

Here’s how it’s gonna go down:

Send an email to me, Peter Harris (I’m on podge9<at>gmail<dot>com), including the following information:

1. Your name
2. Your home address (or where you would like the CD sent)
3. Whether you are going to the Summer social* (’cause CDs can be exchanged there)
4. Up to three of your favourite all time bands
5. Up to three of your most liked albums
6. Up to three of your least liked bands/music genres
7. A link to your Last.fm page (if you have one) – ours is here, in case you didn’t know

I will try and match people up accordingly.

*[Ed: The summer meet-up is a special day in celebration of Muso's Guide's sixth anniversary, and you're all invited. We're having an all-day picnic - more details are available on the page in the link]

I do realise that one of the reasons for a mix CD is to try new stuff but at the same time, you don’t want it to be full of stuff you know will make you sick up your ears.

If we have an even amount of takers, I’ll pair people up so A makes CD for B and B makes for A, uneven numbers and we’ll make a jaggy snake, A makes for B, B makes for C, C makes for A etc.

Rules:

1. It must be a CD – no Spotify lists or MP3 CDs.
2. Pretty obvious but make sure you write down the artist/track name and the album it’s taken from.
3. If you want to set a theme or decorate the CD, go for it.

E-mails in by the end of this week please (June 21) and I’ll send out details of who you’re mixing for next week.